ArticleNature communications2016
A keystone mutualism underpins resilience of a coastal ecosystem to drought.
Article in Nature communications, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 papers.
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Who cites it
25 citing papers in PubMed.
- Recommendations for the development of erosion-resistant tidal marshes to enhance nature-based flood risk mitigation.Ecological applications : a publication of the Ecological Society of America · 2026Review
- Climate variability disrupts microbial mutualism-driven population persistence.Nature ecology & evolution · 2026Article
- Combining co-introduction with patch-size optimization as a novel strategy to maximize seagrass restoration.Ecological applications : a publication of the Ecological Society of America · 2025Article
- An abundant mutualist can protect corals from multiple stressors.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Article
- The Physiological and Biochemical Response of Ribbed Mussels to Rising Temperatures: Benefits of Salt Marsh Cordgrass.Integrative organismal biology (Oxford, England) · 2024Article
- Latitudinal variation and plasticity in response to temperature inEcology and evolution · 2023Article
- The Complete Genome Sequences of 2 Species of Geukensia (Brachidontinae, Mytilidae).Biodiversity genomes · 2023Article
- Article
- Review
- Evolution of coastal forests based on a full set of mangrove genomes.Nature ecology & evolution · 2022Article
- Gulf ribbed mussels increase plant growth, primary production, and soil nitrogen cycling potential in salt marshes.Marine ecology progress series · 2022Article
- A large invasive consumer reduces coastal ecosystem resilience by disabling positive species interactions.Nature communications · 2021Article
- Mussels drive polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) biomagnification in a coastal food web.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Facultative mutualisms: A double-edged sword for foundation species in the face of anthropogenic global change.Ecology and evolution · 2021Article
- A nucleation framework for transition between alternate states: short-circuiting barriers to ecosystem recovery.Ecology · 2020Article
- Sea-level rise and the emergence of a keystone grazer alter the geomorphic evolution and ecology of southeast US salt marshes.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2020Article
- Mimicry of emergent traits amplifies coastal restoration success.Nature communications · 2020Article
- Resilience of beach grasses along a biogeomorphic successive gradient: resource availability vs. clonal integration.Oecologia · 2020Article
- A Lévy expansion strategy optimizes early dune building by beach grasses.Nature communications · 2019Article
- The shaping role of self-organization: linking vegetation patterning, plant traits and ecosystem functioning.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Droughts are increasing in severity and frequency, yet the mechanisms that strengthen ecosystem resilience to this stress remain poorly understood. Here, we test whether positive interactions in the form of a mutualism between mussels and dominant cordgrass in salt marshes enhance ecosystem resistance to and recovery from drought. Surveys spanning 250 km of southeastern US coastline reveal spatially dispersed mussel mounds increased cordgrass survival during severe drought by 5- to 25-times. Surveys and mussel addition experiments indicate this positive effect of mussels on cordgrass was due to mounds enhancing water storage and reducing soil salinity stress. Observations and models then demonstrate that surviving cordgrass patches associated with mussels function as nuclei for vegetative re-growth and, despite covering only 0.1-12% of die-offs, markedly shorten marsh recovery periods. These results indicate that mutualisms, in supporting stress-resistant patches, can play a disproportionately large, keystone role in enhancing ecosystem resilience to climatic extremes.
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